


dark bites away the sun

by theworldabouttodawn



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mass Effect Fusion, Hopeful Ending, Lots of Loose Ends, M/M, Team Europe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-18 12:07:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14212815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theworldabouttodawn/pseuds/theworldabouttodawn
Summary: leon signs up for a mission and gets way more than he bargains for. featuring captain anze kopitar, garrulous best friend tobias rieder, and a race of insectoid, poison-spitting aliens.





	dark bites away the sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dark_Eyed_Junco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Eyed_Junco/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Hundred Nation Hero](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10259936) by [Dark_Eyed_Junco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Eyed_Junco/pseuds/Dark_Eyed_Junco). 



> so i know very little about team europe and also this ship was never one i had ever considered, but i’ve been wanting to write a space opera/mass effect fusion for a while, so. well. here we are. very loose fusion, handwavey science, terrible plotting on my part, but i hope you like it!!!! (also like. this is a Very Loose Fusion so it’s not accurate at All to mass effect either lmao) 
> 
> a few warnings at the end! nothing that requires archive warnings tho
> 
> thanks as usual to s for betaing  
> title from the accidentals' "earthbound"

_“So why Draisaitl? He’s young, got lots of potential, was doing well on the_ Edmonton _before he requested to be reassigned. He shouldn’t–_ ”

_“That’s exactly why we need him. If there’s any chance we do this, it’ll be because of him.”_

_“Okay, and? We can’t just ruin someone’s life like–”_

_“He asked for this.”_

_“Oh. Well, okay then.”_

* * *

For a ship crewed by men with nothing more to lose, the SSV _Europa_ is remarkably lively at first glance, loud and bustling despite the cramped quarters. Leon shoulders by what feels like a dozen guys on his way to his bunk, fielding cheerful welcomes and hellos as he does so. He knows he’s the last arrival before they make the big jump by a few months, but even then he already thinks that this might feel like home.

It helps that the first thing he sees when he enters the room assigned to him is a familiar face. “Drai!” Tobi Rieder exclaims, leaping off a bottom bunk, a giant smile on his face. “Come on, it is good to see you!”

“Good to see you too,” Leon says with some surprise, returning the embrace that Tobi enthusiastically wraps him in. He hasn’t seen Tobi since they both went offworld. “Didn’t know you were here too. What made you–”

And that’s the question, really, the one hanging over the entire ship, colouring everyone’s interactions with each other. What made them sign up for what would certainly be a suicide mission? None of them have any chance of returning home (at least in the official books), not when the rachni have never left any survivors, and now they’re mounting an expedition to their homeworld with only 23 men to try to strike up some kind of peace, but with no bargaining chips at their disposal and certainly no firepower.

But Tobi just laughs it off. “Oh, we don’t worry about that here. What matters is what we’ve got to do with the time we have left. Put your stuff down, let me introduce you to all the guys! We’re bunking with Grubi – you might remember him from Minsk, he left the KSK not too long after that – and Niederreiter from Switzerland, although he’s been career Alliance–”

A bit bemused and overwhelmed by the chatter, Leon nevertheless does as Tobi says and dutifully follows him out of the tiny room as Tobi keeps talking. “And, of course, there’s Captain Kopitar – he’s Slovenian, I think, but he’s a biotic too–”

“I’ve heard of Anže Kopitar, Tobi,” Leon says. “Who hasn’t?” Of course, he’s not going to mention how much he practically _worshiped_ Captain Kopitar when he was a child – the first biotic to captain his own ship, and a European, nonetheless. Leon recalls, with some dismay, the poster he had – still has, probably – on the wall of his childhood bedroom in Cologne.

Tobi isn’t put off by Leon’s snappishness at all – or if he is, he certainly doesn’t show it, and Leon makes a mental note to be nicer in the future. “He’s _great_ , Drai. Just like all the stories they told us at Jump Zero, when we were kids. You’ll love him, I swear. He probably wants to see you, get to know you.”

Indeed, they find Captain “Please, just call me Kopi” Kopitar in the mess hall, speaking with the tallest man Leon thinks he’s ever seen. “It’s good to meet you, Draisaitl,” he says warmly. “This is our Executive Officer, Zdeno Chara.”

“Good to meet you,” Chara says, and his voice is so much softer than expected. It takes a lot of the intimidation away. “Kopi, I’ll see you around, okay?”

“Get outta here,” Kopitar – Kopi – says good-naturedly before turning to Leon. “So, Lieutenant, how are you liking the _Europa_?”

“It’s – I’ve never seen anything like it, sir,” Leon says, at a loss for anything else to say.

Kopi makes a face at the honorific but laughs anyway. “Go ahead, you can tell the truth. It’s a giant hunk of scrap metal, but it’s home, and it’ll get us where we need to go.”

“I was on the _Edmonton_ for an entire year, sir,” Leon says ruefully. “Wasn’t much better.”

“That so, huh?” Kopi asks. “Sekera was there for a bit too before he signed up for this. Said it was barely getting by. That why you left?”

Leon sighs. “I don’t – is it okay if we don’t talk about that? I’m here now, isn’t that all that matters? Sir?” he adds belatedly.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine,” Kopi says. “We all have our reasons for being here.”

They fall silent for a moment, before Leon blurts out, “I’ve been following your – your work for a while now, sir.” He really hopes he’s doing better at hiding his hero worship than he sounds to himself.

Either way, though, it seems to have at least broken the silence. The last thing Leon wants is to get off on the wrong foot with his new captain. “So you know all about me then,” Kopi says, grinning, “but I don’t know much about you besides what your file says.”

“Okay, well, I’m a biotic, sir,” Leon says first, before realising that his captain probably knows that already, at the very least. “Top of my class at Jump Zero. Spent a few years assigned to a KSK unit before getting shipped out on the _Edmonton_ , and now I’m here.”

“KSK – that’s the German special forces, right?

Leon grins. “Close enough. The Alliance lent me and Tobi out for a bit so we could see the world, know what we were supposed to be protecting before they sent us to the stars.”

Kopi hums appreciatively. “Wish they had done that for me too,” he says, “but it worked out well enough. Well, it’s good to have you on board.”

“Good to be here, sir,” Leon says. “Is there anything else?”

“I don’t think so,” Kopi says, standing and reaching out for another handshake. “Tobi, introduce him to everyone else, will you?”

Tobi huffs. “That’s what I’ve _been_ doing,” he says, but stands anyways. “Come on, Drai, there’s others you’ve got to meet.”

Leon lets himself be led – this seems like it’ll become a dangerous habit if he doesn’t stand on his own enough, but for now it’s nice to have friends. Before they can quite leave the mess hall, however, they hear Kopi call, “Oh, and Draisaitl?”

“Yes, sir?” Leon responds automatically, stopping in his tracks.

Kopi groans. “For the love of God, stop calling me ‘sir’.”

“No promises,” Leon grins. Then, after a moment’s thought, he adds, “sir.”

Tobi starts chattering again as soon as they leave the mess hall, boundless energy (that Leon remembers ruefully from some _unfortunate_ nights in Cologne) guiding them up to the bridge. “Pilot’s Coach. Nobody knows his real name, probably not even Kopi, and nobody knows why we call him that, so don’t ask. If you go offship, he’s the one you’ll be in communication with. That right next to him is Zuccarello. Norwegian, only one on here who thinks we can actually get through this alive.”

Said optimist waves them over when he sees Leon staring. “New guy, right? Good to meet ya.”

“Good to meet you too,” Leon says slowly. How anyone can believe that they can actually come back from zipping through a wormhole to try to form an alliance with a species they can barely communicate with is so beyond him, but he supposes he admires the man’s positivity. They’re going to need that, out in the black depths where no one has ever gone before.

* * *

 He wakes early the next morning (or what passes for morning here in the endless depths, which is just “two hours before first shift”), still unused to the noise and the creaking. (The _Edmonton_ was huge, depressingly so, and laughter was few and far in between. Here, he can hear guys talking from the other side of the ship, and they’re all having a great time. It’s – startling, to say the least.)

Pulling on his uniform and wandering down to the mess hall, he grabs a ration pack (sausage and egg, it says, although everything tastes the same when it’s freeze-dried and vacuum packed), rehydrates it, and settles down at the end of one of the long tables.

“Hey, new guy,” the literal giant he saw last night says suddenly, sitting down in front of him with his own breakfast (or whatever meal it happens to be, for him. No one’s on the same schedule here). “Draisaitl, right? Can I call you Drai?” (Wait, okay, that’s XO Chara, maybe he should be standing up or something–)

Leon shrugs. “I guess, go ahead, sir–”

XO Chara laughs. “Kopi told me about that, you calling everyone ‘sir’. We don’t do that here. Everyone’s the same in death, anyways.”

And that – Leon hasn’t quite wrapped his head around the fact that there’s a 99% chance that everyone on this ship, himself included, will be dead within the next five years. He pushes that thought down as best as he can, uncomfortably aware of the pause in conversation, and asks, “How long have you been on the _Europa_ , sir?”

“I was one of the first – _recruited_ , so they say, for this mission, yes,” XO Chara says. “And please, call me Z.”

Leon makes a mental note to probably never call anyone on this damn ship _sir_ again. “So do you know why’s everyone human?” he asks. “Seems like at least the turians, if no one else, would’ve wanted in on first contact.”

Z sighs, putting down his fork. “Nobody’s dumb enough besides humans. Everyone else has more of a survival instinct. No turian or asari would sign themselves up for a suicide mission, and salarians already live so short. So – just us.”

“Just us,” Leon repeats slowly. “I would’ve thought that – exploration, right? The Council wouldn’t have wanted to leave that up to humans.”

Shaking his head ruefully, Z says, “They weren’t too happy when Kopi sent in the final roster, but there was nothing to be done. No one taps one of their own people to force them to sacrifice themselves.”

“And what about women?” Leon presses. “This – you’d think there would be at least _some_ women who’d sign up. Hell, I’ve worked with some who definitely would’ve.”

Z shrugs. “That, I have no idea,” he says. “Just how the dice rolled. Maybe all the women were sensible enough to figure out that this is a terrible idea and backed off.”

“What, are you saying that going through a wormhole with no idea what’s on the other side besides legions of rachni _isn’t_ a terrible idea?” Leon says sardonically.

“The Council had no other choice,” Z says. “We need to know where the rachni are, what they’re doing, and if they’re a threat or just killing us because they don’t know what they’re doing. They came through before, and they might do it again, so we need to be careful.”

Leon’s not sure he buys all that, but he’s already signed up and committed to this mission, and anyways – he doesn’t really want to come back. That was the whole point of signing up.

* * *

“We’ll go through the wormhole during the next shift, so if you’re awake, there might be a little – _turbulence_ ,” Coach says over the intercom a few days later. He sounds so nonchalant, as if he’s just saying something mundane like _we’re going through the Citadel mass relay soon_ or _landing in two hours_. But the truth of the matter is, there’s no coming back through that wormhole. For all they know, there could be a fleet of rachni ships positioned right around the exit, and even if they make it there, their mission isn’t over until they either establish a tentative peace with the rachni or die in the process.

It’s probably the worst idea the Alliance has ever come up with, let alone the Council, but they still managed to recruit a crew of 23, so that’s got to count for something, right? Even then, Leon really doesn’t have high hopes.

He’s not the only one, even if he’s helping out Zucc in the vehicle bay when the announcement comes on and gets to see his excited reaction. “Can you imagine?” Zucc exclaims. “A completely foreign galaxy, and we are the first ones to traverse it!”

Leon is marginally less enthused (to say the least), but he grudgingly admits that “yes, it’ll be very cool to land on planets no one’s seen before.”

Their mission is nominally to make contact with rachni and forge an alliance, but right now all that amounts to is “scan every planet you can and land on any you find interesting” because they have no idea where the rachni homeworld is, so once they go through the wormhole (while Leon’s asleep, thank god), Kopi directs them to the nearest system that looks like it may have held some life in the past, if not currently.

A few hours into Leon’s shift, Coach says, “Kopi? We’re coming up on the destination. Be careful when you go down there – scan doesn’t show any sizeable lifeforms, but there are definitely artificial structures on the surface.”

“Noted, Coach,” Kopi says. “Alright, landing party is – Draisaitl and Streit, you’re with me. The rest of you, you know what to do.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Leon salutes, a little sardonically. Nevertheless, he’s excited to go offship for the first time in what feels like forever, and stepping foot on an as yet undiscovered planet? That’s an honour few get to experience even in these days of exploration.

They hurry down to the vehicle bay, where the Mako rover is already prepped and waiting for them. Before they get in, Kopi turns to Leon and says, “I know this isn’t your first time, but it’s different when there’s no one out here but Coach watching. Keep your head on straight and don’t get any of us killed.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Leon says, somewhat acridly. “I’ve been around the block.”

“I’m not doubting that,” Kopi says. “But it’s different. You’ll feel it, trust me, and I want to come back with all of us intact.”

Leon sighs. “We will.” And – there’s something about this whole situation that grates on him, maybe the condescension from someone who had been his idol for a long while – and probably still is, if he’s being honest with himself, or maybe that he’s being taken along on this mission like a fresh-faced recruit who’s never seen another sky before. But he wants to make a good impression here, if nothing else, so he quietly goes.

The planet is unimpressive, grey lichen-covered rocks and grey sky and dark shadows and dim light from the faraway stars diffused by the omnipresent fog. They drive aimlessly for a while, scanning mineral deposits and searching for any signs of life, but nothing really breaks the monotony.

Then, something glints on the horizon. “What’s that?” Leon asks, pointing to it and pulling out his binocs. He can’t get a good read on the thing even with them, however. Everything blurs together through the fog.

“Can’t be a crash, we’re the first ones out here in recorded history,” Kopi says. “Let’s go check it out.”

They reach the – whatever it is – without much difficulty, clambering out of the cramped confines of the Mako. The structure itself, however, makes them stop in their tracks.

It juts out of the rocky landscape like a sword in a stone from the old stories, glinting in the dim light of the dual suns. Curving into the sky, the metal of its three branches is old and mottled but rust-free.

“It’s – it’s _beautiful_ ,” Streit says, trance-like, and indeed it is. Leon finds himself drawn to it, the fog around them swirling into a vortex that pulls him ever closer to the structure. Vaguely, he can hear the others talking, the radio still working perfectly, but none of that seems to matter, not right now when he’s so close to – whatever this is.

He reaches out to touch it, wanting – inexplicably – to feel the smooth metal under his fingertips, despite knowing that he’s in a full suit–

Everything goes dark.

* * *

_watercoldhungrydarktouchmoveliftlight_

_creaturespeechfoodtalkfindbuildenterfly_

_darkspacestarsbeamblastlightfireoblivion_

* * *

He wakes to voices and a pounding headache. Letting out an involuntary groan when he tries to open his eyes only to be met with blinding light, he asks, “What happened?”

“Oh, he’s awake!” he hears, and soon someone’s urging him to open his eyes.

He really doesn’t want to, but the light behind his eyelids dims enough that he can take in blurs of what must be the medbay. Dr Josi swims into view next to him. “How’re you feeling?” he asks gently, helping Leon into a sitting position. The good doctor’s face this close to Leon’s is giving his muddled brain some thoughts he should probably not be having, but he nonetheless thinks distractedly that he would probably–

He comes back to himself with a literal snap. “Can you focus?” Dr Josi’s asking.

“Yeah, yeah,” Leon says, taking a sip of the water handed to him and shaking his head a bit to clear the cobwebs. “What happened?” he asks again. He can’t remember anything but a series of images flashing through his head, and he’s fairly certain that those images never belonged to him in the first place, although he can’t for the life of him explain how.

“You touched the artefact,” Kopi says, speaking up from the corner. “And then it let out a burst of energy, sent us flying and knocked you unconscious. Took us a bit to get you back here, but – here we are.”

Leon starts. “How – how long? How long have I been out?”

“Not long, a few hours?” Streit volunteers. “We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to go back, but a day of lost time isn’t much.”

“God, okay,” Leon sighs, breathing a sigh of relief and sagging back into the pillows.

Kopi raises an eyebrow at his reaction. “Why, did you think you were out longer?”

“I saw – things,” Leon says slowly. “Images. A vision. I don’t know how long it lasted.”

“What did you see?” Kopi asks.

The memories are just out of his reach, dreamlike yet real in a way that reaching for memories of dreams never feels. Like they’re right there, if only he tries hard enough, and they’re certainly not fading. He tries nevertheless, but comes up blank. “I can’t – it’s all flashes. Images, but they’re all scrambled. I can’t make sense of them.”

Dr Josi looks thoughtful. “I’ve heard of this before. Well,” he quickly amends when he sees Kopi and Streit’s sceptical looks. “Something like it. Prothean ruins – some of them are beacons, or something, and when you touch them, they try to – beam a message into your brain, or whatever.”

“Well, it’s nothing less than we expected,” Kopi says quietly. “We knew that the Protheans had gotten this far, if nothing else. It might be what we need to talk to the rachni.”

Leon hopes so.

* * *

That night, his dreams are so much more vivid than they used to be. He sleeps, and it seems that he wakes in a dim, warm room, lying on a large bed with lamplight off to the side providing the only illumination.

He doesn’t really need light to figure out what’s going on here, though. The wet heat around his dick is enough to tell the story. Someone’s hair is fluffy in his hands, under his fingers, and when that someone does _something_ with their tongue, well–

Leon looks down.

It’s Kopi, sucking his dick, making him feel like he’s about to burst out of his skin, nerves lighting up in a way that they can’t in a regular dream.

Before he can process any of this, however, he wakes with come on his pants and thanks whoever’s listening that everyone else in his room seems to be fast asleep. With a groan, he rolls over and tries to get comfortable. He’s not going to risk running into Kopi in the halls if he tries to clean off his pyjamas.

In the morning (or what passes for it), Leon goes about his routine and heads to the mess hall for breakfast. “Draisaitl, can we talk?” he suddenly hears, halfway through his eggs.

It’s Kopi. Leon immediately feels his face heat up, recalling last night’s dream. Trying to school his emotions into something resembling nonchalance, he says, “Sure,” and motions to the seat across from him.

Kopi looks clearly uncomfortable, but Leon can’t imagine what on earth it would be about. Unless – but that isn’t possible, is it? Leon dearly hopes not.

“I had a dream last night,” Kopi says bluntly, and. Well.

Leon steels himself. “Yes?”

Kopi doesn’t avert his gaze, as awkward as this must be for him. “I had a dream last night, and you were in it, and I could _feel_ that _you were in it_.”

“I’m sorry,” Leon says. No use in trying to hide it, to deny anything. “I – I can’t promise that it won’t happen again, but I’ll try.”

Sighing, Kopi says, “This isn’t some – L4 biotics can’t – telepathy isn’t a _thing_ they put in the new mods, is it?”

“No, not as far as I know,” Leon says, shaking his head. “If anything – it’s the ruins, the Prothean beacon or whatever.”

He breathes a quiet sigh of relief when Kopi seizes on that thread and starts talking about telepathic biotics instead (apparently there’s an asari on the Citadel who can find out your innermost desire, or something) and ignores the elephant in the room – the dream. Maybe they can get through this.

* * *

And then Kopi summons Leon to his room that night, so Leon thinks _okay, we’re doing this_ , and goes.

No words are exchanged between them, no explanation for what they’re doing or what it might mean for the future. Instead, Kopi just slams the door shut behind Leon and presses his mouth to Leon’s roughly. The kiss is biting and aggressive, but Leon falls into it anyways. He doesn’t know what’s going on here, but he – he’ll take what he can get, for now. It’s better than nothing, and they’re all going to die soon anyways, so what’s the point?

And it’s just as good as he had expected – not expected, _hoped_ , dreamed, protected in his darkest desires. Kopi’s pushy, manhandles Leon as if they weren’t almost the same size, but he doesn’t give Leon anything he can’t handle.

It’s something Leon thinks he’s waited his whole life for, is the thing. And he dares to hope – maybe this isn’t a one-time thing, the way Kopi feels on top of him, the way they move together–

Kopi’s gone when Leon steps out of the shower (that Kopi gets to have because he’s the captain, Leon supposes, but what the _fuck_ ). And Leon gets it, they have different schedules and this is Kopi’s room anyways, he can’t vacate it _forever_ , but–

He thinks he gets the message.

* * *

They pick up an Alliance distress beacon, somehow. Leon thinks it’s instrument error at first when he sees the ping cross his screen, but no – it’s coming from their sector of the universe, only a few light-years off their current trajectory.

Kopi’s evasive when Leon asks him about it. Leon hopes that this has nothing to do with them sleeping together the other night, although when he mentions this to Tobi (because Tobi _knows_ , it’s hard to hide things on a cramped spaceship from the friend who spends every free moment with you) Tobi points out that “it would be _more_ worrying if he was actually keeping something from us rather than just being awkward because you slept together,”, and Leon has to admit that Tobi certainly has a point.

He usually does, unfortunately.

But Kopi isn’t awkward any other time Leon bumps into him. To the contrary, he’s friendly, warm, caring – all the things that had drawn Leon to him in the first place. Which, Leon supposes, is nice for his own mental state, but. Not for their mission.

This is something they need to know, then, if their captain is keeping information from them. Tobi isn’t any higher ranked than Leon, so he doesn’t think he’d have any better luck getting a straight answer out of Kopi than Leon did.

But – Z might. He’s the XO, he’s in charge when Kopi goes landside. If Kopi would tell anyone what was going on, it would be Z. The only risk Leon thinks he’s running is – what if Z’s already in on the secret because it’s some giant Alliance conspiracy or something?

Tobi tells Leon that he’s being dramatic and paranoid and goes to ask Z himself about the beacon.

Leon, of course, doesn’t find out about any of this until the day after, when Tobi shakes him awake a few hours before his shift is supposed to start and hisses excitedly, “I got Z to spill!”

“What did he say?” Leon asks, bolting upright and narrowly missing hitting his head on the upper bunk.

“He didn’t know much, but he told me that Kopi wasn’t keeping something from us just because he wanted to. He had orders, or something, but he said he’d talk to Kopi and ask if he’d tell us, at least,” Tobi says, and okay, it’s not as much as Leon had hoped it would be, but it’s not _bad._

But he decides to take matters into his own hands anyways and approaches Kopi when he’s assigned to the bridge the next day. “You’re hiding something,” he says bluntly. Dancing around the fact isn’t going to get him anywhere.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kopi says.

But he’s a terrible liar, so Leon keeps pressing. “I saw a beacon out here,” he says. “It was Alliance. And Tobi asked Z, and Z said you knew something, but that you couldn’t tell us. But Tobi didn’t _see_ the signal, but I did, and you can’t tell me to let it go.” On any other ship, speaking to a captain like this might be grounds for court martial, or at the very least _some_ kind of disciplinary action, but it really wouldn’t matter in the long run, not on this mission.

Kopi sighs and gives in after a few moments of silence. “I don’t – you can’t tell Tobi any of this, but – you should know, probably, since you saw the signal and all.”

Leon isn’t altogether too sure that that’s correct Alliance procedure, but he sure as hell isn’t going to bring it up right now. And  “What is it?”

“We weren’t the first ship to go out searching for the rachni,” Kopi says lowly. “The Alliance sent another one before us, one that wasn’t sanctioned by the Council. The _Amerigo_ was faster, better designed, their crew more suited to the task – they were supposed to succeed.”

“But that’s a distress beacon,” Leon responds. “If they were supposed to succeed, why–”

He knows the answer to that question, though, just as his captain knows he knows. “The rachni are more dangerous than anyone had assumed,” Kopi says. “But if there’s anyone down there, we need to rescue them.”

“And someone set up the distress beacon, so there’s got to be some people still alive,” Leon says. “What are we going to tell the rest of the crew?”

Kopi shrugs. “I’ll figure something out.”

* * *

By all appearances, he doesn’t figure anything out. He only takes Leon with him landside when they get to the planet that’s broadcasting the beacon signal. (They really need to get on naming all these planets, and _fast_ , before they start confusing themselves more than they already are.) Privately, Leon thinks that maybe they should’ve gotten someone else – Tobi, probably, since another biotic is always useful, and they have no idea what they’re up against or what happened to the crew of the _Amerigo_ – but he doesn’t mention this to Kopi.

“There’s – this looks familiar,” Leon says haltingly when they land, peering out the window. “I think – the vision? I saw this, somewhere.” It’s a rocky, barren landscape, just like many of the other terrestrial planets he’s seen in the galaxy, but there’s – there’s _something_ about the colours, or the landmarks, or the blue sunlight, that triggers something in his memory. The problem is, he can’t figure out _what_.

“Do you remember anything else?” Kopi asks urgently. “What was on this planet, maybe?”

And try as he might, he still can’t grasp the specifics. Nothing has changed since the moment he woke up in the medbay, disoriented and seeing images of what must be the distant past. “I have no idea,” he finally says.

Kopi sighs. “Well, that just leaves us back where we started, I guess. No big deal.”

The beacon pings on their radar, not too far from their landing site, but the terrain is rocky enough that Kopi can’t just beeline his way there. Leon holds on for dear life, because despite all the bells and whistles on the Mako, its handling is apparently terrible and Kopi’s not a very good driver, to say the least.

The beacon is anchored firmly into the rocky ground next to a busted rover. The rover itself is silent, no signs of life anywhere around it, but Kopi and Leon poke around for a bit nonetheless. The ground is too hard for the rover to sink in at all, and there’s not enough rock dust in the air to settle on the rover and tell them how long it’s been here.

Leon brings the beacon into their Mako after a bit of digging to see if he can retrieve any data it might contain. It’s an old model, doesn’t quite fit with the hardware ports on the Mako’s console, but the systems are close enough that he’s just missing a few wires and plugs but can still manage to eke out some information out of it.

It doesn’t say much. The beacon was planted maybe a few weeks ago, at the latest, and it had been carted about on the surface for at least two hours before being planted. Apart from that, Leon can only glean the name of the ship (the _Amerigo_ , as expected). Curiously, the name of any crew who had inhabited the ship or used the rover has been completely expunged.

He pokes his head out of the Mako to announce this to Kopi, only to find that his captain has disappeared. Grumbling a bit to himself (really, this would have been a lot easier if Kopi had told someone else about the _Amerigo_ and they had a third crew member on this mission), he steps out to go hunting for him. There really isn’t that much room to hide out here, so he can’t imagine where Kopi would’ve gone.

A searing pain suddenly tears its way through Leon’s left arm, bypassing his shields and armour completely and lodging itself into his flesh. Instincts take over and he throws out a hand, sending a kinetic barrier flying at whoever shot at him as he himself ducks and rolls into cover, pulling out his pistol.

Kopi follows the blaster shot, eyes wild as he dives next to Leon. “Where were you?” Leon demands, risking a glance around the rock they’re crouched behind. Nothing.

“Our people are here,” Kopi responds, but his tone definitely makes it sound more like a question. “I don’t know why.”

Before Leon can say something else, another shot lands right next to them, sending dust and pebbles skittering. “We’ve got to get out of here!” Leon exclaims, trying to figure out where the shots are coming from.

“I’ve got you,” Kopi says, and before Leon can say anything more Kopi’s bundled him up in a kinetic field and they’re dashing to the Mako, leaping in just before a cluster of blasts rattle off the Plexiglas.

“What – what’s going on?” Leon asks, fighting through the haze in his brain and the pain in his arm. It’s not his first time being shot, but it never gets easier.

From the driver’s seat, Kopi shouts, “I’m not sure, but they’re shooting at us!”

“No fucking shit,” Leon mutters, reaching for the medkit. This answers absolutely none of the questions Leon has, so he risks a look out the back window, wincing as he does so, and is met with a hail of bullets pinging off the reinforced Plexiglas and a hazy view of one of the landing craft, with what looks like their entire crew running after them.

They can’t keep up with the Mako, thankfully, and it’s not long before Kopi loses them behind a steep hill, parking the rover and looking back to check on Leon. “You all right?” he asks.

“I’m fine,” Leon says, gritting his teeth and checking the medkit for any painkillers. He’s already bound up his arm as best as he can. Felt like a blaster shot, not an actual bullet, so he should be fine. “Just a scratch.”

Kopi looks fairly doubtful, but he nods and checks back outside. “I’m going to look for somewhere to hide, then. The rachni will be out soon.”

They drive around for a bit more, watching the setting sun with apprehension and looking for any kind of crevice where they can hide. As it gets darker, they start to hear hissing sounds, always just out of sight. Leon’s never seen a rachni, but he’s heard the descriptions – insect-like, full of poison that bypasses even the most advanced shields, almost immediately deadly to anyone who encounters them.

He’s not sure how much it’ll do, then, but he throws out a kinetic barrier to send any nearby rachni flying. It doesn’t seem to do much, judging by the constant hissing, but it was worth a shot. Eventually, they find a cave that scans free of any lifeforms, so it should be relatively safe.

Kopi puts up a kinetic barrier around the entrance of the cave and helps Leon out of the rover. “We need to get your arm looked at,” he says.

“I’m _fine_ ,” Leon responds, shaking off his touch. “Can’t say the same about everyone else, though. What happened to them?”

“I have no idea,” Kopi says, troubled. “Come on, that barrier won’t hold forever, and we need some kind of light.”

The flares from the Mako’s emergency kit are enough to start a small fire, but there’s not much fuel in the kit, and there’s absolutely nothing flammable in the cave. Nevertheless, Kopi does the best he can.

“We’ve got to wait for the sun before we can make a run for it,” Leon says (pointing out the obvious), risking a peak outside the cave. The rachni are still waiting outside the entrance, hissing and rearing to spit poison as soon as they spot him. He ducks back inside, where they can’t fit around the bulk of the Mako without meeting the firelight.

Kopi sighs, but shifts to settle in as best as he can nonetheless. “We won’t be waiting too long. Rotation on this planet is something around fifteen hours total.”

The tiny fire doesn’t seem to be enough to last them until morning, but any hope is better than nothing. Leon tries not to think about the rest of the _Europa_ ’s – _his_ – crew, or the crew of the _Amerigo_ that led them here in the first place. But that’s easier said than done. He’s heard stories – artificial intelligences who could suck all the _being_ from organics and convert them to shambling husks, and he prays to whatever deity might be listening that if – if two dead crews lie on this planet, that at least they went out fighting.

And the rachni might have a hive mind, apparently, but that does nothing but make them stronger in groups, and there are certainly enough waiting for them out there to melt the flesh off their skin before they can even try anything.

So they settle in for the night. They have insulated sleeping bags in the emergency kit in the Mako, but Leon doesn’t think he’ll get much sleep, what with the rachni right outside the cave and everyone else from the _Europa_ who knows where.

“Why did you sign up?” Kopi asks, voice low, after a period of silence. “For this? You had everything, in the KSK, on the _Edmonton_ – why are you here?”

And Leon had so many responses prepared for when he would inevitably be asked this question – _I wanted to be part of something greater_ or _The galaxy just felt too small_ or even simply _I was bored_. But he never expected the first person to ask to be Anže fucking Kopitar, his childhood hero who he doesn’t think he could ever lie to. So, instead, he says, “What about you?” And it’s still hard to even _talk_ about Connor, but to Kopi of all people – he knows he’s a mess, he doesn’t need Kopi to know that too.

Even though he, obviously, already knows.

But Kopi’s stare is thousand-yard, seeing far beyond the black walls of this cave. “I was tired,” he finally says. “Tired of winning, tired of ‘living to fight another day’, tired of getting up in the mornings. And this – it’s an honourable end. I get to dictate the terms of my death.”

And, honestly? That’s one of the worst things Leon thinks he’s ever heard. Anže Kopitar shouldn’t – he shouldn’t meet his death in a dark cave in the middle of nowhere, just waiting for it to come, literal light-centuries from any human civilisation.

It’s that moment that he resolves to get them out of there, no matter the cost.

He can do this.

He has to.

And it can’t just be him and Kopi – Tobi’s out there, and big Z, and Zucc, and everyone else, all those men who’ve become his brothers, and they’re defenceless against the rachni, not to mention whatever happened to their _brains_. He needs to get them all off this planet, alive and whole and ready to fly back to known space.

He thought he was ready to die, but now – faced with this? He isn’t. This may have been a suicide mission, and all signs point to them being the only survivors, but – he’s going to get them all back.

The only problem is: he has no idea how.

* * *

 

_darkstonedwellingyoungcarefeedsound_

_metalwarmunknownlighthurtobstacle_

* * *

Leon really didn’t mean to fall asleep, but the next thing he knows, the fire’s gone, the sun is up, and images are pounding through his brain. And something – something _feels different_ , somehow, like the energy that’s always thrumming through his veins is now threatening to find a way out. The rachni are gone, now, and the pain in his arm has faded to a dull murmur. A few more medigel packs, and he’ll be fine, he thinks.

Kopi’s busy packing up anything they brought out of the rover when Leon makes his way over to it. “How’d you sleep?” he asks.

“Well enough,” Leon says. “But you should have woken me up.”

Kopi shakes his head. “I don’t – I don’t really sleep,” he says, and – well – Leon can totally believe him, even if he’s fairly sure that Kopi took his fair share of rest hours while they were on the _Europa_.

But that’s neither here nor there, and they need to get back to the _Europa_ as fast as they can, see if there’s anyone left on board who’s still sane and functional. Leon tries calling Coach a few times, but he’s not responding, and the best they can hope for is that the _Europa_ is just passing through some electromagnetic anomaly and will respond eventually if he keeps trying.

“Fuck!” Kopi suddenly yells, slamming the console when the rover starts to make an alarming sputtering sound. “Fuck, shit, damn, _god_ –”

Leon breaks off trying to radio the _Europa_ again to figure out what’s going on. The rover’s out of gas. It’s not meant to be landside this long, and it did its best, but it can’t take them any further now. Leon checks the console in front of them – there’s a giant artificial structure not too far away from them, steel and platinum and Plexiglas, apparently, which is clearly Citadel-made, if not human. “We can’t stay here,” Leon says. “There’s shelter, over there, if we can make it–”

“That’s our mass landing craft,” Kopi says. “That’s – that’s what they took down from the _Europa_.”

“They’ve got to be around here somewhere then,” Leon says. “We have to find them.”

The craft is only about a mile away, but it’s harder going than expected due to the rocky terrain and the way every step jostles Leon’s arm more than even the roughest of rides in the Mako ever did. But they make it eventually, scrambling over the rocks and keeping an eye out for any movement, any sound out of the ordinary.

When they make it over one last craggy hill, though, Leon’s heart stops. The lifeform scanner was one of the first to go when they ran out of power, and he hadn’t seen – the landing craft is _swarming_ with rachni, red exoskeletons undulating all over the metal craft.

“Dear Lord,” Kopi whispers. “What do we–”

Something catches Leon’s eye then, something black and grey and artificial among the crawling masses. “There are _humans_ down there,” he hisses. “Our people.”

“That doesn’t – how?” Kopi stammers, before he collects himself and gets it together. “Not all of those are _Europa_ insignia,” he points out as their eyes adjust to picking out the armoured humans among the rachni.

“The crew of the _Amerigo_ ,” Leon says. “They’re down there too.”

“Unfortunately,” Kopi says. “But at least they seem to be alive. All of them.”

And he’s right. That’s something more than they would have expected – that the rachni would, somehow, leave all the humans in their midst alive.

Leon still doesn’t know what’s going on here, but he thinks that – maybe they have a chance here.

And then the humans start shooting.

It’s the exact same situation they were in just last night (oh god, has it only been a day), yet here it’s so much worse, because now the rachni have been alerted to their presence. Kopi’s hands are busy with trying to force the rachni together, nullifying their threat with kinetic energy as much as possible, so it’s up to Leon to shoot and take down as many of the aliens as he can. He can’t bring himself to shoot on any of the humans, not when they don’t know what’s happened to them.

( _Maybe_ , his brain calmly informs him as he’s trying his best just to stay alive, _maybe this is why the rachni are such a threat. They’re empaths, or something, can turn anyone to their side. But then why would they leave him and Kopi unharmed_?)

The rachni don’t even touch the humans in their midst even when they’re worked up, aiming and hissing and spitting only at Leon and Kopi. Leon’s stretched to the limits just trying to keep the toxin away from him, but he can’t help but worry about everyone else.

But then he _sees_ something, an avalanche of images that crash over him and leave him disoriented, flinging out barriers more on autopilot than anything else. And he can’t say what it is he’s seen – _is seeing_ – but it awakens something within him. The energy, already rolling and vibrating at his fingertips, is threatening to burst.

_bluewhitelightblastbrightness_

He _blasts_ as hard as he can. A wave of kinetic energy shatters its way out of him, dropping him to his knees, and the rachni and humans alike fall as one.

This isn’t the time to let his guard down, however. As dizzying as that energy blast may have been, he needs to keep his head, in case the–

“Drai?” he hears, and – no, it’s not Tobi. It’s one of the other humans, the first one to get up, and–

Well. That’s Connor McDavid, the navigator from the _Edmonton_ who everyone thought was going to step up to XO soon, if not the captaincy, but–

“Davo?” Leon asks. “What are you doing here?”

“They asked me to captain the _Amerigo_ ,” Davo says. “And, well, we landed here and–” Then his eyes go unfocused, his gaze goes far, and he pauses for a bit before finally adding, “I don’t think I remember what happened next.”

Leon shrugs. “I’m not – I’m not exactly sure either,” he says, “but your ship is still in orbit and seems to be in perfect working order. We can get you there if we need to.”

“Oh, no, we’re fine, our – our lander is around here somewhere, I think?” Davo says, but he doesn’t sound at all sure. And then, awkwardly, he adds, “Well, it was nice seeing you around,” as if they had bumped into each other at a café on the Citadel or something.

Watching Davo gently help his own crewmen up from the morass of fallen (dead, it would seem, or at the very least immobilised) rachni, Leon’s hit by a strong wave of – regret, maybe? Nostalgia? He can’t exactly place it, but it’s melancholy and he wishes things could have turned out a different way, but they’re here now, on two separate ships both bound for destruction, and that’s – that’s just the way things go, apparently.

“Who’s that?” Kopi asks, startling him.

“Oh, who – Davo? Oh, just – somebody I used to know,” Leon says. “He’s – it doesn’t really matter now.”

Kopi looks doubtful, but before he can say anything, their own crew starts groaning and twitching, and he hurries off to help them instead of pressing Leon further, which is all well and good because the absolutely last thing Leon wants is to be interrogated further about Connor McDavid. There’s a reason why he joined the _Europa_ in the first place.

He finds Tobi in the crowd of fallen rachni around the landing craft, struggling to get up on one arm. Leon grabs him and helps him up, trying to ignore the shooting pain in his arm. “What are we doing here?” Tobi asks, eyes unfocused. “Why – oh, you’re hurt!”

The clarity returns, and Leon breathes a sigh of relief. “It’s fine,” he says. “Come on, let’s go home.”

* * *

The next few days, everyone walks around the _Europa_ in a trancelike state, dazed and confused. No one remembers what happened on that planet. Leon asks Tobi once, but Tobi only gets a faraway look in his eyes and refuses to say anything.

And so they carry on with their mission. Leon spots the _Amerigo_ on the radar once, while he’s on third shift and no one else is about, so he doesn’t say anything. It’s enough to know that they’re still alive, that they got out of there and lived to fight another day, when no one else had ever survived a rachni attack before.

But that may have just been a small colony, one without the firepower or infrastructure that all the other rachni attacks have exhibited. There’s still so much more to do, so much more figurative ground to cover before they can even find the rachni homeworld, and if whatever happened to his crewmates was the fault of the rachni, then they’ve got far bigger fish to fry. Leon would be worried about having wiped out an entire colony, since that would certainly have put a damper on negotiations, but he dreams of seeing himself, and waking up suddenly on that rocky planet to find all the humans gone, so he thinks (hopes) they’re fine.

Sometimes he runs into Kopi in the mess hall, or on the bridge, or in the bowels of engineering. They don’t say much to each other then, not where the others can hear. Kopi doesn’t think it wise to talk about all that’s happened over the past few months.

So they don’t talk.

What kind of telepath needs speech, anyways?

**Author's Note:**

> warnings:  
> \- characters are on what's probably a suicide mission. they've all signed up for this voluntarily and reference it a lot.  
> \- the main character gets shot. there is no description of the injury, but there is a further firefight.  
> \- many characters get brainwashed, kinda, but they're all fine by the end.  
> \- there is no real resolution to the overarching plot, but everyone appearing in this fic ends it safe and sound.


End file.
